Death+Rituals+and+Attitudes

media type="custom" key="3284772" //How are cultures connected by their burial practices and afterlife beliefs?//

Death has been an inevitable reality since the dawn of time, and for as far back in time as we have been able to study written history and artifacts from various cultures, we see that all of them did have a unique way of burying and memorializing their dead. Click on the images to view sites with more information.

The earliest sign of funeral practices have been found in **Neolithic Jericho**. The Neolithic period is between 9500 and 5000 BC.



Many **skulls** like this were found, decorated with plaster and eerily lifelike. Archaeologists speculate that they were part of some of humanities earliest funerary and afterlife-related rituals, taking the form of **ancestor worship**. Headless bodies were found buried, sometimes miles away, from these skulls.

Settled around 5000 BC, the fertile crescent quickly became home to a group of people known as the **Sumerians**. They were not without their own perceptions of death and the afterlife either.

media type="youtube" key="XBYHF0oSsp4" height="344" width="425" The **Cemetery at Ur** is a famous Sumerian burial site. Be sure to watch the video to see pictures of all the artifacts recovered, including two famous pieces, **The Standard of Ur** and **The Bull-Headed Lyre**. Sumerian kings and queens were buried with instruments, jewelry, dolls and other treasures, indicating the belief that these things would follow them into the afterlife.



The first written language, **cuneiform**, gave the Sumerians better communication skills, allowing them to create some of the earliest literature. The **Epic of Gilgamesh** is a work that deals intensely with mourning and human mortality.

Gilgamesh is the strongest, most beautiful and most admired king of the Sumerians, but he is still only human. After his close friend **Enkidu** dies an untimely death, Gilgamesh goes through the very human process of mourning for his friend, and then going on his own quest for immortality. The Sumerians may not have been the first culture to wrestle with the reality of death through literature, but they certainly were not the last. Many modern authors still struggle with concepts of mortality and the afterlife.



We are lucky that the Sumerians had such a clear written language. Certain Mediterranean cultures that led to the rise of Greek culture had no system of writing at all. The **Cycladians** were one such culture. However, we are aware that they must have had some sort of afterlife belief, due to the ritualistic burying of stylized **Cycladic figures** along with the dead. Most are lying down and obviously female, but some, like the one pictured, are preforming daily tasks such as playing music or drinking from a cup. We do not know the exact meaning attributed to these surprisingly modern-looking sculptures, but their placement in graves indicates that they were very much a part of the Mediterranean funeral practices.



While the Cycladic people lived in a group of islands off the coast of mainland Greece, another group was attaining power on the mainland. The **Myceneans** were a people rich in gold and wealth, and they would often bury their dead with their lavish personal belongings, such as jewelry, cups, and daggers. These graves were known as "**shaft graves**" and, often, **burial masks** would be made for the deceased as well.



Eventually, these cultures evolved into a group of city states that came to be known as the **Greek Empire**. The earliest Greek burial traditions show a tendency towards unique **grave markers**.



This large vase, or **Krater**, would be placed over a grave. The vessel itself is actually bottomless, so **libations** of wine would be absorbed by the earth and could be replenished by the family of the dead person regularly. **Koros** and **Kore** statues (meaning male and female youths in Greek) were common markers of graves, too. Heavily influenced by the stoic, upright stance of the Egyptian **Ka Statues**, they showed a youthful image of the deceased standing with their arms at their side and the left foot forward, a common stance for pharaohs to be pictured in.



Some think that Kore with their arms extended, like the one in this picture, served a more religious purpose. The Greeks were **polytheistic**, as was common in that era. **Akhenaton**, one of the late pharaohs of the Armana period in Egypt, was the only ruler in that area to promote **monotheistic** beliefs at the time. The Pelpos Kore's other, extended arm was thought to be for placing offerings on, to give them to the worshipper's chosen god.



The Greeks were also the first culture to have a large base of creative and imaginative literature and plays, which was previously unheard of. Many of their plays dealt with themes of mortality and even burial, such as the play by Sophocles, **Antigone**. Their **fatalistic** beliefs, that a **pantheon** of gods controlled their fate, also led to plays of great irony, such as **Oedipus Rex**, where characters are unaware of the death and doom that has been invariably prophesied.



The final Mediterranean culture to arise before the Romans was an unusual group of people, called the Etruscans. The Etruscans were unique in that they saw death as a happy occurrence, rather than the depressing ones the Greeks saw it as. Greek funerals are usually grim, as evidenced in a scene from the Iliad, where Hector, a hero of the war, is placed on a **funeral pyre** after much lamentation. The Etruscans would often pose for their **sarcophagi** while they were still living, and the containers usually contained **cremated** ashes. They were usually topped with an image of the married couple inside lying happily next to each other.



The Etruscans also built elaborate **catacombs** and **necropolises** to keep their dead in. In some, they would carve **reliefs** on the walls of things the dead may need in the afterlife, as a way to look after them and wish them well. They would also build "chairs" for the spirits of their ancestors to sit in. These places were oten the site of festivals and parades, showing that the Etruscans viewed death as a part of life.

A **eulogy**, a positive speech written for the dead, is similar to the lamentations the Greeks spoke at their funerals, and even the parades Etruscans had for their deceased. Many people are buried in a **coffin**, which is a modern version of the earlier Sarcophagus, seen in Etruscan and Egyptian times. Our modern **headstones**, used to mark grave sites, are predated by even more elaborate grave markers such as Kraters and Koros statues. And finally...
 * So how are these practices reflected in modern times?**
 * Ancestor worship**, as seen in Etruscan, Greek, and even Paleolithic cultures, is echoed in our symbolic visits to parent's or grandparent's graves.
 * Cremation** is another popular option which was only used commonly in Etruscan culture.
 * Mausoleums**, not unlike Egyptian rock-cut tombs or catacombs organize a whole family to be buried together.
 * Embalming** artfully preserves the appearance of the body for viewing, a practice that originated with Mummification.
 * The theme of death and the afterlife is one we still struggle with in many aspects of the humanities, such as literature, art, theater, and philosophy, just like our ancestors have in every culture before us.**

Additional Links: http://jeopardylabs.com/play/burial - A Jeopardy game to help review cultural beliefs and burial practices, as well as how they connect to modern traditions.

**death** in Egypt  http://www.travel-to-egypt.net/images/Ancient_Egypt_Mummification.jpg http://egypt.mrdonn.org/mummy.gif

[|'Mummification: Part One'] This video discusses the extensive process of mummification in the Egyptian world. The Egyptians believed every body must be preserved so that it can live through eternity. Many people were involved in the process, each with specific jobs. The body was first cut open and then the organs were taken out for preservation. Finally, the body was wrapped in linen cloth and placed in the tomb.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/pharaohs/images/pic4.jpg http://www.crystalinks.com/bookofdead.jpg http://www.artline.ro/admin/_files/newsannounce/book_of_the_dead.jpg [|http://tlc.ousd.k12.ca.us/~gsonobe/images/king_tut1.gif]

Eternal life was the number one most important thing to the Egyptians. After death, they carried out highly spiritual ceremonies to insure the spirit lived on forever in the afterlife.


 * //Specific Egyptian Rituals//:**

__**‘ka’**__- The Egyptians believed each individual possessed a ka – a life force that continued after death. The ka was just as important as the living being and it was to reunite with the body of the deceased. Once the two were reunited, the being could successfully proceed to the afterlife.


 * __Mummification__**- Mummification is the process of preserving the dead. The body was first cut open and the organs were taken out. Natron (salt substance) was placed over the body and organs in order to dry them out. The organs were then placed into canopic jars for preservation and the body was wrapped in a linen cloth. Finally, the body was placed in the tomb, along with any other personal items belonging to the deceased.


 * __The Book of the Dead__**- The book of the dead is drawings inscribed on the insides of the tombs. The inscriptions are rituals and spells intended for the mummies to read and to protect them in the afterlife.

__**Sarcophagus**__- Sarcophagi are stone coffins that the deceased were placed in. They were often painted and inscribed with hieroglyphics. Many sacred items of the deceased were placed in the coffin as well.

//[|For More Information]//


 * Reflection & Response** to driving question:

I have found the information on my topic to be highly interesting in comparison to the culture of our current society. Both societies of culture are very different, yet so similar in varying ways. Death is viewed from positive and negative aspects in both societies; it is sad in the eyes of loss but happy in the eyes of the afterlife. For the Egyptians, the afterlife is believed to continue until eternity and in today’s society, the afterlife is either Heaven or Hell. Satin in today’s society is even comparable to the Egyptian god Anubis- the god of death.

We both take part in special ceremonies for the dead, but in different ways. In our society, a simple funeral will do the trick; however, the Egyptians take death to a whole new level with all of the fancy rituals they partake in. Egyptian death ceremonies are fascinating if you really think about it. They cared so much about death and put extensive amounts of time in carrying out the varying procedures. It is really hard to believe that they mummified every single body. All the time and effort they must have put in is unbelievable. I wonder how long it took to complete all of the processes involved with death for just one individual.

In the video, I learned the person who cuts the body open is then stoned for committing such a horrid act. I wonder why they do this because aren’t they assigned that position? This is a somewhat confusing part of the process that I hope to learn more about. Overall, I found the death procedures carried out in the Egyptian world to be highly significant and interesting in comparison to today’s society.